Shakespeare, Popularity and the Public Sphere

Abstract

In late Elizabethan England, political appeals to the people were considered dangerously democratic, even seditious: the commons were supposed to have neither political voice nor will. Yet such appeals happened so often that the regime coined the word 'popularity' to condemn the pursuit of popular favor. Jeffrey S. Doty argues that in plays from Richard II to Coriolanus, Shakespeare made the tactics of popularity - and the wider public they addressed - vital aspects of politics. Shakespeare figured the public not as an extension of the royal court, but rather as a separate entity that, like the Globe's spectators who surrounded the fictional princes on its thrust stage, subjected their rulers to relentless scrutiny. For ordinary playgoers, Shakespeare's plays offered good practice for understanding the means and ends of popularity - and they continue to provide insight to the public relations strategies that have come to define modern political culture.

Choice Architecture in Shakespeare’s Public Meetings: Nudge Theory and Richard III, Coriolanus, and Julius Caesar

“…Individual responses by audience members to issues and actions presented on stage could give politicians a sense of what public opinion, in the aggregate, might be. 5 Alison Findlay shows how the bounded nature of ceremonies in Shakespeare's plays, as well as the act of attending a play, may create a public sphere in which diverse individuals come together, for a brief period, to respond freely about issues of state. 6 Thomas Cartelli demonstrates how, in the sources to Richard III, citizens dissent from Buckingham's propositions about the succession through their murmurs, the 'hidden transcript' of lower rank defiance, which are translated by Shakespeare into stubborn silence.…”

“…By contrast, Coriolanus is reluctant to prime his electors even with the robe and hat of humility, let alone the sight of his wounds (Doty argues that, in such choices, Coriolanus chooses to make himself popularly hated, mirroring in reverse the aim of the opposing side). 26 A fifth nudge is to take advantage of a state of arousal in decision-makers, who may make irrational choices while in a 'hot' state that they would not consider when 'cold'. 27 The tribunes agree to keep the citizens in a furore, to preclude any cool balancing of Coriolanus's service to Rome against his attitude to class (reasoning which had marked the citizens' earlier debate about whether to give him their voices).…”

Jane Shore,Edward IV, and the Politics of Publicity

“…Robert Devereux, the second Earl of Essex and one of the most popular figures of the 1590s, "became famous for impromptu street performances of popularity." 20 According to his secretary Henry Wotton, Essex habitually "committ [ed] himself in his recreations and shooting matches to the publique view of so many thousand Citizens which usually flocked to see him." 21 At two moments of national crisis, these courtiers took their performances to the theater.…”